An awkward Holmes seen in 2006 video

San Diego  A video of suspected theater shooter James Holmes as an 18-year-old science intern in San Diego depicts a bright, if somewhat awkward, scholar with an ability to grasp complex theories and an easy way with jokes.

The videotaped presentation, first obtained by ABC's Good Morning America, was made in 2006, shortly after he graduated from Westview High School in Torrey Highlands. It was at the end of his prestigious eight-week internship at La Jolla’s Salk Institute, where he studied in the computational neurobiology lab.

James Holmes during a science boot camp in June 2006. — Claire Sampankanpanich

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James Holmes during a science boot camp in June 2006.
/ Claire Sampankanpanich

The program supervisor who introduces him before the presentation tells the audience that Holmes’ goals are to become a researcher and to make scientific discoveries.

He also enjoys playing soccer and strategy games, and his dream is to own a Slurpee machine, she says, which draws laughter from the audience of fellow interns.

Wearing an oversized gray button-down shirt, Holmes projects a mixture of nervousness and confidence during the 10-minute presentation about temporal illusion, or the perception of time.

“It’s an illusion that allows you to change the past,” Holmes explains. After a brief pause, he adds, “You can’t win the lottery,” and gets some laughs.

The rest of the presentation is difficult to follow for the layman, as he explains some of the work he did exploring how humans perceive reality and deal “with the subjective experience.”

He ends the presentation thanking people at the school and his family, and jokes, “If they want to give me an allowance bonus, that’s OK too.”

Holmes’ supervisor at Salk, John Jacobson, has told reporters that despite the presentation, the intern did not appear to have understood the basic science behind the work.

Jacobson told the Los Angeles Times that Holmes was “mediocre” and “stubborn” during the internship, and never finished his project.

Claire Sampankanpanich, a student who participated in the program with Holmes and provided U-T San Diego with the video, said Holmes was anti-social and hard to work with.

Former classmates have described Holmes as quiet and somewhat odd but not dangerous. His teen years were filled with numerous extracurricular activities, including soccer, track and church.

Holmes served as a camp counselor for Camp Max Straus in Los Angeles for eight weeks in 2008, the CEO of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles said in a statement. As a cabin counselor, he helped children ages 7 to 14 develop confidence and teamwork skills through activities such as swimming, archery and horseback riding.

No details were given about Holmes’ time there.

Holmes, now 24, is accused of methodically planning and carrying out a shooting rampage at a crowded Aurora, Colo., movie theater early Friday during the midnight premiere of the Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded.

Police found elaborate, explosive booby traps at his nearby apartment and spent two days disarming them. Holmes, who grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos, was in Aurora pursuing a doctorate degree in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver but was in the process of withdrawing from the program.